


afterglow

by lovelisles



Category: Will & Grace
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Romance, F/F, Slow Burn, Unresolved Sexual Tension, consider it the danley walker plot: revisited, except yk... make it gay, karen walker! is! bisexual!, tbh their dynamic is kind of a big game of cat and mouse, this is essentially a replacement for season 11
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:35:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23973871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelisles/pseuds/lovelisles
Summary: Karen Walker doesn't do emotions. Except she does.Olivia Walker doesn't particularly like her brother's on again, off again, bitch of a wife. Except she does."They’ve danced around this for years now,  her and Karen. This game of cat and mouse. Sometimes she’s the prey, sometimes she’s the hunter. Not that Karen would ever admit to being preyed upon, of course. But that’s alright. She is more than willing to keep up appearances if it means they get to stick to their flirty banter.""Right now, though? In the moonlight, under the gaze of a semi-naked Karen Walker? She’s certain she has never felt more like the prey."
Relationships: Karen Walker/Original Female Character, Karen Walker/Stan Walker
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	afterglow

**Author's Note:**

> alright, i have gathered up the nerve to publish this, even if i have a feeling no one will ever read it. if you do and enjoy it, though, please let me know because nothing would make me happier. i mean that. :)
> 
> so, a couple of notes before we get started, i guess! the first chapter is a prologue of sorts, to get a sense of their dynamic before we head into the actual plot, which will be a sort of substitute for season 11. it's kind of a revisitation to the danley plot, but make it gay. 
> 
> olivia is a very special creation of mine whom i love dearly and i envision her as carla gugino, but she's yours to picture as you want. it is my head canon that stan named his daughter olivia after her, and that they were rather close growing up.
> 
> now onto the story...

It’s 2:33 a.m. on a hot summer day circa 1999. 

They’re in their Hamptons mansion for the weekend. Stan had some business to conduct and Karen... well, she was never one to miss out on an opportunity for a luxurious holiday, no matter how short. 

Stan had been in and out of meetings all day, leaving his wife to her own devices. Feeling lonely, Karen had turned to her favorite companion: alcohol.

She’s currently enjoying the pool clad only in her lingerie, slightly more buzzed on what is a little over her usual amount of white wine. It’s a good harvest, too. She’d had Rosie set some bottles aside for her especially for this little trip.

While Karen would be caught dead before admitting to actually enjoying something thoroughly, she did have a special fondness for that pool. Swimming in it during odd hours had always made her feel... well, free. Uninhibited. It was a special kind feeling to have.

Before she knows it, however, she finds she’s no longer unaccompanied. Distinctive, elegant footsteps begin to approach — the kind of steps which could never belong to Stanley — and she knows exactly whose voice she’s bound to hear before the raspy sound makes its way to her ears. She smiles despite herself, not turning in the other woman’s direction quite yet.

“You know...” Olivia begins, taking in the vision clad in black lace before her. The barely-there fabric clings to her damp skin. Her smirking lips are pursed around a wine glass and she is playfully swivelling her way across the pool, giggling to herself.

Trapped in her own little world.

“I’m aware that you’re a vampire and therefore, will not meet your death in something as frugal as the common cold, but you’ve gotta at least be a little chilly.”

Karen turns around to face her then, offering a full blown smile as a reply to her banter. The cheap blow was to be expected. Usually, she’d feign insult and bite back with an equally nasty remark. Not today, though. Today, she could not be bothered enough to care.

“Ha ha.”, she quips back instead, lifting a wine glass in the direction of her sister-in-law. “Feeling cold is for sober people. The booze keeps me warm, Olivia!”

“No surprises there...”

Olivia wraps her arms around herself, feeling the night breeze get to her even through the safety of her wool designer coat.

They stare at each other for a beat, an almost too comfortable silence settling in between the two.

Olivia gives in first, her gaze mindlessly fluctuating between the pool and then back to a smirking Karen.

“Come in, Liv. The water’s great!”, Karen teases, getting the other woman to roll her eyes.

Olivia shakes her head ‘no’, slowly moving further away from the pool. Nothing but trouble there.

“You’re just trying to get me naked and drunk, Delaney.”

“Walker.", she corrects immediately, a warning look in her eyes. "And so what if I am?”

Olivia’s mouth falls open for just a beat, right before she catches herself in the act. She wires it shut within a second and hopes to God the indiscretion of the act goes unnoticed. 

It doesn’t.

“Stanley said to tell you his last meeting’s over and that he’s going to bed.”, she tries, feeling it sound flimsy and artificial even as it leaves her own lips.

They’ve danced around this for years now, her and Karen. This game of cat and mouse. Sometimes she’s the prey, sometimes she’s the hunter. Not that Karen would ever admit to being preyed upon, of course. But that’s alright. She is more than willing to keep up appearances if it means they get to stick to their flirty banter.

Right now, though? In the moonlight, under the gaze of a semi-naked Karen Walker? She’s certain she has never felt more like the prey. 

Karen downs the last bit of her wine and startles Olivia by letting out a vicious, high-pitched scream of “Rosario!” that might just have been loud enough to make the local bat population dizzy. 

In a heartbeat, an agitated maid comes running from the main house, bearing one more bottle of white wine. The sight elicits a slightly sadistic, albeit satisfied smile from Karen.

“Thanks, honey. Would you be a dear and tell mister Walker that I won’t be joining him until later? Okay.”

Karen takes the wine from Rosario, settling it down before her and grabbing the bottle opener she has by the pool, adjusting it on top of its neck.

Olivia observes her for what begins to feel like a little bit too long for Karen’s comfort.

“Honey, either get in here and drink with me or knock off the voyeur act.”, she scoffs, her eyes rolling towards the back of her head in what was very Karen-like fashion.

That seems to break Olivia out of her trance. She quickly blinks to herself and looks around, taking in the quiet, half asleep mansion and the now contrasting life force of a woman right in front of her.

“Good night, Karen.”, she says, her voice now cold and distant.

Karen’s efforts on the wine bottle halt for a moment as she seems to register the tone gracing her words before replying in tandem.

“Good night, Olivia.”

Once the cork is finally off, Karen looks up to realize Olivia is gone. 

On the deck chair before her, lonely and unattended, sits the fancy wool coat she had been wearing.

Suddenly, Karen feels cold.


End file.
